Fernando Zóbel

FERNANDO ZÓBEL DE AYALA Y MONTOJO (Manila, Philippines, 1924 - Rome, Italy, 1984).
"Melainos III", 1978.
Mezzotint-Heliogravure on handmade paper. Copy 7/40.
Signed, titled and justified by the artist.
Measurements: 18,5 x 18,5 cm; 50 x 35,5 cm (paper).
Also known as Fernando M. Zóbel, he was a Spanish Filipino painter, businessman, art collector and founder of the Museum of Abstract Art in Cuenca. Zóbel was born in Ermita, Manila in the Philippines, and was a member of the prominent and well-to-do Zóbel de Ayala family. It was his uncle who would teach young Fernando his first knowledge of art. Zóbel studied medicine at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. In 1942, he suffered a spinal deficiency that forced him to stay in bed that year. To pass the time, he turned to painting. He studied at the University of Santo Tomas and later transferred to Harvard University in 1946 to pursue degrees in history and literature. He finally graduated in three years and wrote a thesis on the work of Federico García Lorca. Zóbel began painting during this period without formal training at Harvard. In the fall of 1946 he met Jim Pfeufer and his wife Reed Champion Pfeufer. Reed was a painter who was loosely related to the Boston School, and she became a mentor to the young artist. Zóbel graduated in 1949 magna cum laude. After completing his undergraduate degree, he returned briefly to Harvard to study law, and then worked as a curator at the Houghton Library. He founded the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art at Casa Colgadas, in the city of Cuenca, Spain, in 1963. The museum was expanded in 1978, and in 1980 Zóbel donated his collection to the Juan March Foundation, which later incorporated it into its own collection.